High heat chuck/pulled beef

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K Kruger

Senior Cook
Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Messages
326
Location
Okeechobee, Fla
I did a 4.4-lb boneless chuck roast in the WSM the other day.

Started it at 1:50 EDT with some apple and hickory and an MM start with about 22 lit; empty foiled standard pan. Temps rose to 225 within the first couple minutes. Over the next hour temps rose to 300, helped halfway along by cracking the door about 1/4 inch.

The rub:




In the center, a pile of Aleppo pepper atop a generous grinding of coarse black pepper and, clockwise from left: thyme, ground hot Chimayo chile, grated nutmeg, ground ginger, marjoram, Chinese cinnamon, granulated garlic, ground clove (in the shadow), ground cumin, granulated onion, ground coriander.

I salted the chuck first, as usual, both sides, then waited for the meat to moisten due to the salt. Then I applied the rub fairly heavily.







I left the ranch for a while and when I returned the temp was 325. About 15 minutes later (2.25 hours into the cook), I foiled (no additional liquid or aromatics) with a single piece of HD, then cracked the door open to 1/2 inch. I got temps of 350 within 10 minutes. It started raining. 5 min into the rain and temps had dropped to 325. Checked again: windy but rain is very light; gray, pleasantly cooler. Temps 315. Good enough. I'd like 350 but didn't mess with it.

Well, 10 min later and it was pouring out. (I REALLY need to get a shelter for the cooker up!) Cool hard rain. Just before it started I threw a couple pieces of smokewood in there (and a couple whole eggplants) so that the wood would ignite quickly and boost temps before the rain hit again.

Rain stopped; 3.8 hours into the cook; temps 290. Checked the beef. Maybe 10-15 min more and it will be ready.

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The chuck was done right at the 4:10 mark. Drained the juices and they totaled about 3/4 c. After settling it looked like 40% fat. Fine. I added about 1/4 c V-8 juice, 1 T Dijon, 3 T or so of vinegar finishing sauce I always have on hand for pork, whisked it well, then stirred in abot 3/4 t xanthan gum.

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Here we go:







I am not a huge fan of Q sandwiches and rarely ever make them. I decided to for the helluvit. I made a cabbage-red pepper-white onion slaw with a dressing based on buttermilk, with a bit of mayo, shallots, chives, and finely chopped dried pineapple and dried papaya, with a squeeze of lime and a little sugar.







For the pic I went with the pulled shown above. Then I scraped the meat back into the bowl, then pulsed the meat in a processor to make it finer, a texture I prefer for beef, shown below.



Nice little meal.
 
I was wounderin if high temp would cook chucks faster.
It works with butts & briskits,
So how moist & tender was the finished meat?
 
Quite moist and tender.

With chuck, they key variable is the cut. It's important to get better, more finely marbled cuts if you can. That said, you can finesse any lack by making a finishing sauce out of the juices (leave the fat in them) and adding some to the meat as it is pulled. Emulsifying the juices makes them cling better. (You can also just use the juices as is and leave them in the foil during resting. Meat's ability to absorb/retain mloisture increases during cooling.) Chopping the meat further after pulling (I used a processor) also softens the texture. I'm not a big fan of some chuck cut's stringiness so I went this route.
 
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